Sermon Tone Analysis

! The Third Sunday in Lent

!!!!!!  

!!!!!! *March 23, 2003*

 

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*TITLE:  *   Bringing Good from Bad

 

 

*SERMON IN A SENTENCE: *   The cleansing of the temple demonstrates that God can bring good from bad.

 

 

*SCRIPTURE: *   John 2:13-22    (Top of page)

 

*SERMON:     *

 

God is able to bring good out of bad.

That thought ought to cheer us.

We all do some bad things during our lives and suffer bad experiences, but God has the power to redeem the bad -- and that is a blessing.

We see that in our Gospel lesson today.

Something bad happened.

Caiaphas, the high priest, quarreled with the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Israel.

Caiaphas rewarded his supporters in that conflict by allowing them to establish concession stands inside the temple area to sell cattle and sheep and birds -- and to exchange money.

Everyone else had to set up booths across the way in the Kidron Valley, but those who backed Caiaphas got prime real estate inside the temple walls.

The selling of animals and the changing of coins were necessary, because people came from afar at Passover to make their sacrifices in the temple and to pay their temple tax.

The scriptures provided that only the best animals -- those without blemish -- were acceptable as sacrifices.

How could anyone bring a top-quality animal -- one without blemish -- perfectly groomed -- from Galilee or Rome or Egypt?

They couldn't!

Anyone who has traveled across country with children knows that, at the end of such a journey, nobody is perfectly groomed -- nobody gets there without blemish!

So these travelers needed to buy their sacrificial animals in Jerusalem.

They needed someone to set up shop to provide acceptable animals.

And these travelers would bring money from their own country and the countries through which they passed to get to Jerusalem.

So these travelers needed to exchange this mish-mash into coins acceptable for the temple-tax.

They needed someone to set up a money exchange.

But they didn't need a marketplace inside the temple walls.

I started this sermon by saying that God can bring good from bad.

The bad was the marketplace inside the temple walls.

There had to be a marketplace somewhere, but it didn't need to be inside the temple walls.

It would not have been there had it not been for Caiaphas and his political cronies.

God was not well served by the crowding and the noise and the smell of animals inside the temple precincts.

So Jesus came to the temple, got a whip, and drove the cattle and sheep out of the temple.

He went through the area overturning the tables of the moneychangers and scattering their coins hither and yon.

He said, "Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"

Nobody else knew it yet, but Jesus was the beloved Son of his beloved Father, and he was not about to tolerate people setting up shop in his Father's house -- boarding animals on his Father's property -- dropping dung on his Father's floor.

"Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" he commanded.

This was very disruptive.

I have always pictured Jesus herding four or five cattle and three or four sheep from the temple, but the scene must have been quite different.

Over one hundred thousand pilgrims came to Jerusalem for Passover, and they came to offer their sacrifices at the temple.

At any given time, there would have been thousands of people inside the temple walls -- probably tens of thousands.

There would have been dozens or hundreds of vendors, all hawking their cattle or sheep or birds or coins.

It would have been like a street fair -- crowded, noisy, people jostling each other, vendors crying out.

How would you like to make a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to the temple to worship God and then have to navigate that kind of mess to get to the sanctuary?

Jesus didn't like it at all.

He didn't just order them to get out -- he got a whip and drove them out.

He scattered their tables and their money and their dignity all over the floor.

The effect must have been like a stick in the spokes -- he stopped everything cold.

So the marketplace in the temple was bad, but God brought good from the bad.

This incident in the temple gave Jesus the opportunity to introduce himself as God's Son.

Jesus would be the new temple -- the new place where people would come into the presence of God.

We no longer need to travel to Jerusalem to commune with God.

We can commune with God wherever bread is broken and wine is poured out in Christ's name.

Our pilgrimage into God's presence need not be a once-in-a-lifetime affair.

We can enter God's presence whenever we like, because Jesus makes God accessible.

And that is Good News!

It is Good News, because we all have experiences where we feel completely isolated -- when we wonder where God is -- when the pain seems too great to bear.

The promise is that God is with us even through the valley of the shadow of death.

The promise is that God redeems us.

The promise is that God brings good from even the worst situation.

You might remember that, some years ago, Terry Anderson was captured and held hostage by militants in Lebanon.

They held him for seven long years, much of which he spent in darkness and chains.

He didn't know whether he would ever be free again.

He didn't know whether he would be alive the next day.

But God brought good from the bad.

Before Anderson was captured, he wasn't a very nice man.

But his imprisonment changed him.

God was at work in his life through his pain.

After he was freed, he reflected on his imprisonment.

He said:

 

"I almost chuckle sometimes --

this punishment, if punishment it is,

seems perfectly designed for my sins and weaknesses....

I drank too much -- no alcohol here.

I chased women -- no women here.

I'm arrogant --

what better than to put me in the hands of these so-arrogant, uncaring young men.

I've been careless of others' feelings --

these people give not one tiny thought to mine.

I've been agnostic most of my adult life --

my only comfort here is the Bible, and my prayers."

It was in that terrible situation -- because of that terrible situation -- that God was able to break through the hardness of Terry Anderson's heart.

In the depth of his despair, Anderson prayed:

 

"Help me!  There's no reason why you should.

Don't we always turn to you when we're in trouble

and away from you when things are good?

I'm doing the same.

But you love me.

So help me."

And God did help him.

I don't know what kind of help Anderson had in mind.

He probably just wanted God to free him from that hellish situation.

And, in a sense, that was what God did.

God became very present for Anderson in that dark cell.

God used that hellish situation to free Anderson from the sins and compulsions that had enslaved him prior to his imprisonment.

Eventually, God also freed Anderson from his imprisonment.

When he did, Anderson was a different person, a new man -- redeemed, whole.

Whether you are doing bad things or suffering through bad experiences, God will be there with you if you will let him.

God will help.

If you are doing bad things, ask God for help.

When you do, be aware that asking God to redeem you from your sins is like asking a surgeon to save you from your cancer.

God's cures are not always gentle, but they can save your life.